The ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe 2023/2024 will return this year with an additional award for innovative technicians.
The ISH Awards involves a voluntary panel of judges seeing every eligible comedy show at the Fringe, where 100% of any sponsorship goes towards the artists.
The awards were created by multi-award winning comedian Nathan Cassidy, who is the only comedian to have performed live at the Fringe for the last 15 years (as he was the only live performer at the 2020 Fringe). Awards Producer Sarah Bowles won The Funny Women Comedy Industry Award partly for her work on the Awards.
The ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards returns with the same three awards as in 2023/2024 - Best Show, won in the last two years by Julia Masli/Paul Foot (joint winners) and Elf Lyons, Best Newcomer and Panel Prize. And this year, the ISH Awards are very proud to be adding a fourth award, "The Lyons Award for Tech". 2024 Best Show Winner Elf Lyons has donated £500 for the prize for this Award, for "an innovative technician and operator who creates for and aids the vision of performers through dynamic lighting and sound".
Elf Lyons (pictured with horse) says, ‘There are so many technicians who without them, the vision of performers wouldn't be possible. These creatives work so hard and often run from one show to another like mad things trying to aid the visions of everyone. I am thrilled that through the ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards we can honour these brilliant people."
Nathan Cassidy says, ‘I am excited that the ISH Awards are returning in 2025 and even more so with Elf Lyons' generosity here. There is an ever-growing amount of good will towards the Awards from comedians, many of whom need more support, and being recognised in 2023 and 2024 was a huge boost to their Fringe and for their future careers. The ISH Awards is about artists supporting artists, and Elf Lyons' generosity is just the start of the vision I have for these Awards in the future in terms of prizes and further support for artists - watch this space!'
Sarah Bowles, Awards producer says ‘I am over the moon that we can add a fourth award this year for best Tech, if we could add Awards for everyone involved in shows we would - maybe one day! We will also be doing Awards Showcases at the Fringe for this year’s long and short-listed comedians on the 16th and 20th August respectively. These shows will be at 23:30 at The Counting House Ballroom, free entry with donations at the end, 100% of which will go to the artists - thanks to Alex Petty at the Free Festival (last year's joint winner of the Panel Prize!) and the team at the Counting House for their support, we'd ask everyone at the Fringe to support these showcases.’
Those long and short-listed in 2023 and 2024 included Ed Byrne, Amy Gledhill, Seymour Mace, David Eagle, Stuart Goldsmith, Phil Ellis, Louise Young, Hannah Platt, Janine Harouni, Ashley Haden, Luke Kempner, Mark Nelson, Joe Kent-Walters, Ania Magliano, Gareth Mutch, Paul Sinha, Phil Kay, Kemah Bob, Daniel Kitson, Mark Bittlestone, Frank Skinner and many, many more great comics. The 2024 Awards were won for Best Show by Elf Lyons, and for Best Newcomer Abby Wambaugh. The Panel Prize was won jointly by Alex Petty, Dion Owen, Elaine Robertson, Funny Women Glitter Project and Best in Class. The Prize for each Award in 2024 was £5000. Previous Best Show Winners Paul Foot, Julia Masli and Elf Lyons have gone on to have hugely successful international tours with their shows following their ISH Award wins.
The ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards began in 2023, when the long-established Edinburgh Comedy Awards lost their funding and looked unlikely to go ahead in 2023. But after the Edinburgh Comedy Awards found new sponsors, the organisers of the ISH Awards decided to go ahead anyway because of a surge of support from comedians, producers, venues and Nica Burns who runs the Edinburgh Comedy Awards themselves. Nathan Cassidy concludes, "I’ll always remember one long-listed comedian saying to us, ‘You’ve not only changed my Fringe, you’ve changed my life, as you’ve shown that people like me can be recognised.’
Visit www.edinburghcomedyawards.com for more information on the awards, clips, eligibility, and even to get involved this year as a judge.
And please [email protected] or contact via instagram @edinburghcomedyawards if you are a Tech at the Fringe working on multiple shows, or you would like to highlight your Tech - this will help us in choosing a winner for this new Award. All eligible shows for the ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards must be under the primary category of Comedy, be 45 mins or more and not be compilation shows.
